The most compelling musical divorce during Michigan rock and roll’s first decade was the breakup in of Jackie Wilson with the songwriting team led by Berry Gordy Jr. Gordy, along with his sister Gwen and his friend Billy Davis, had teamed up to provide Wilson with his first five hits as a solo artist. These included “Lonely Teardrops”, the song that made Jackie Wilson a major recording star. It was also the song he was performing when he suffered the stroke and subsequent head injury from his fall on stage that tragically ended his career in 1975.
Without the breakup, it’s reasonable to assume that Berry Gordy Jr. might not have formed his remarkable Motown recording empire – at least not in the way that it started in 1959. Jackie Wilson had little to do with Gordy and the others leaving as his main songwriters, however. The man who was most responsible for the split was Nat Tarnopal, Wilson’s manager.
Tarnopal was born in Detroit in 1931, the son of Jewish parents who had immigrated to Detroit from Eastern Europe. Growing up, Tarnopal’s two passions were baseball and R&B music. As a star shortstop, Tarnopal was scouted and offered deals to sign with both the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago White Sox.
After considering the low wages paid to ballplayers at that time and the anti-Semitism directed at Jewish athletes, including stars like Hank Greenberg, Tarnopal took a job with the Detroit Union Tire company. He then began spending his spare time hanging out at the Flame Show Bar in Detroit’s Black Bottom entertainment district.
It was there that he met Al Green, not the singer. This Al Green was the owner of the Flame Show Bar and manager of several important artists including LaVern Baker and Johnnie Ray. It was Tarnopal who convinced Green to sign a young singer named Jackie Wilson, who had recently left Billy Ward’s Dominoes to launch his solo career.
Green got Wilson a recording contract with Brunswick Records, a subsidiary of Decca Records that was used to release recordings by black artists. Interestingly enough, Buddy Holly and The Crickets were also signed to Brunswick. After hearing their recordings, Decca executives thought they were black. It was only after meeting them in person that they discovered their error.
When Al Green died unexpectedly, Tarnopal, who was just 25 years-old, took over as Jackie Wilson’s manager. Berry Gordy Jr., who had dreams of making it in the music business as a songwriter, had met both Al Green and Nat Tarnopal at the Flame Show Bar. It was this connection that led to Gordy and the others writing Jackie Wilson’s first charting single, “Reet Petite (The Finest Girl You Ever Want To Meet)”, in late 1957.
After writing four more hits for Wilson, including “Lonely Teardrops” and another big R&B and Hot 100 hit with “That’s Why (I Love Her So)”, Gordy broke away from his successful songwriting arrangement with Wilson. This was after Tarnopal refused Gordy’s demand to have his songs used as the B-sides of Wilson’s releases. B-sides paid as much in royalties as the hit side, and Gordy was providing the hits but was splitting the money three ways.
The hit songs that Gordy co-wrote and produced were extremely important to Jackie Wilson’s career, and they were major factors in his being booked for appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. Gordy needed to make more money, so he felt he deserved to get the B-sides. When he was turned down by Tarnopal, he ended his songwriting relationship with Wilson.
Although Jackie Wilson lost a talented team of songwriters, his career trajectory continued to climb for the next couple of years. He charted ten consecutive Top 40 singles from 1959 to early 1961, including three songs that reached # 1 on Billboard’s R&B chart. His fortunes seemed to change, however, in the wake of a shooting incident in a hotel room in Harlem in 1961 that almost cost him his life.
Jackie Wilson co-wrote his first hit record after Gordy’s departure. “I’ll Be Satisfied” was a # 1 R&B hit in early 1959 and also made the Top 40 on Billboard’s Hot 100. Wilson then signed to make his motion picture debut in a cheaply made rock and roll film called Go Johnny Go. Wilson appeared with a number of other popular recording artists and he performed his next Top 40 hit, “You Better Know It”, in the movie.
Although Wilson’s performance in Go Johnny Go was not directly involved with him being shot by a female admirer two years later, appearing in the film seemed to be something of a curse for several of its stars. The strange and tragic events that seemed connected to the film involved five people who not only appeared in Go Johnny Go, but were all later inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
Ritchie Valens was on the charts with his two-sided hit of “Donna” and “La Bamba” when he made his motion picture debut performing “Ooh My Head” in Go Johnny Go at the age of just 17. Shortly after filming, Valens joined the Winter Dance Party Tour across the Midwest along with Buddy Holly, Dion & The Belmonts, and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson.
The poorly planned bus tour began on January 23rd in freezing mid-winter temperatures. Since there were no days off, the artists had to frequently travel ten to twelve hours on two-lane rural highways to the next tour stop since the Interstate Highway System had yet to be constructed.
Following a performance at Clear Lake, Iowa, Buddy Holly decided to charter a small plane to the next show at Moorhead, Minnesota, 365 miles away. Valens, who was suffering flu-like symptoms, lost a coin flip to Dion for one of the seats, but Dion decided that the cost was too much and gave his seat to Valens. Tragically, the small plane crashed in a cornfield shortly after takeoff, Killing Valens, Holly, Richardson, and pilot Roger Peterson in the early morning hours of February 3, 1959.
Eddie Cochran, another one of rock and roll’s bright new stars, performed “Teenage Heaven” in the film. Cochran, who had hits with “Sittin’ In The Balcony,” “Summertime Blues,” and “C’mon Everybody,” had been friends with Holly and Valens and was badly shaken by their deaths.
Cochran subsequently developed a premonition that he would die young and had plans to give up the road and spend time in the studio making music. Unfortunately, financial responsibilities led to his accepting an offer to tour the United Kingdom in early 1960. By that time, Cochran was a star in Great Britain where he had already charted four singles.
He and fellow rocker Gene Vincent had just finished their last scheduled performance in Bristol on April 16th and were on their way to London along with Cochran’s fiancée Sharon Sheeley and tour manager Patrick Thompkins when their taxi driver lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a concrete lamppost in the town of Chippenham. The collision caused the rear passenger door to open and Cochran was ejected from the vehicle. Sadly, he suffered a massive brain injury and died the next day, Easter Sunday, in the Chippenham hospital.
Disc Jockey Alan Freed produced and promoted the first large traveling rock and roll concerts in North America. He popularized the term ‘rock and roll’ on mainstream radio in both Cleveland and New York City in the 1950s, and he appeared in a number of pioneering rock and roll motion pictures during the decade.
Alan Freed had a large role playing himself in Go Johnny Go. It was his fifth appearance in a rock and roll movie, but it would also be his last. After the movie hit theaters, Freed became tied into the 1959 congressional hearings over payola, the practice of record companies paying DJs to play their songs on commercial radio.
Initially uncooperative with the House Subcommittee, Freed denied taking payola; but the headlines resulted in him being fired from both his DJ job at New York’s WABC in late 1959 as well as his television dance show. Freed’s reputation and career were greatly harmed by the accusations.
In 1962, Freed relented and pleaded guilty to two charges of commercial bribery. Because of the negative publicity, no prominent radio stations were willing to employ him. Alan Freed, sometimes called “the father of rock and roll” died in 1965, at the age of 43, from uremia and cirrhosis brought on by alcoholism.
Chuck Berry was one of rock and roll’s biggest stars when he was offered a significant speaking role as Alan Freed’s friend in Go Johnny Go. Besides supplying “Johnny B. Goode” as the movie’s title song, Berry was also shown performing “Memphis, Tennessee” and “Little Queenie” in the film.
Five months after the film opened, Berry was arrested under the Mann Act. It followed allegations that he had sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old Apache waitress that he had met while touring. Berry had then transported her across state lines to work as a hat check girl at his club in St. Louis.
The Mann Act made it a felony to engage in interstate transport of any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or other immoral purpose. After a two-week trial, Berry was found guilty in March 1960, fined $5,000 and sentenced to five years in prison.
Berry appealed the decision claiming that the judge’s racist comments prejudiced the jury. A second trial was held the following year, resulting in another conviction and a three-year sentence. After another appeal was denied, Berry ended up serving 18 months in prison, but it would take until 1964 to get his career back on track.
Jackie Wilson was the fifth member of the Go Johnny Go cast to suffer misfortune in the years immediately following the film’s release. Due to Wilson’s fervor when performing, along with his dynamic dance moves, impassioned singing, and impeccable dress, he was christened “Mr. Excitement”.
Wilson’s powerful and electrifying live performances rarely failed to bring the female members of his audience into a frenzy. Jackie encouraged his fans to touch him on stage and one of his favorite routines was to bring females on stage to kiss him. Wilson was also reportedly very promiscuous and there was no shortage of opportunities for sex while touring the country.
Jackie Wilson had married his girlfriend, Freda Hood, in 1951 after she had become pregnant. The couple had four children together but eventually divorced after 14 years of marriage because of Wilson’s notorious womanizing.
Wilson was shot on February 15, 1961, at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem. One of his girlfriends, Juanita Jones, discovered him with model Harlean Harris in his room and shot him twice in the stomach during a jealous rage over the affair. Wilson was rushed to the hospital where quick surgery saved his life, although he lost a kidney. Since one of the bullets was very close to his spine, doctors ruled it too dangerous to remove during surgery. As a result, Jackie Wilson carried the bullet in his body for the rest of his life.
His management was anxious to deflect any negative publicity from the incident and protect his reputation. As a result, they concocted the story that Juanita Jones was an obsessed fan who had threatened to kill herself, and that Wilson was accidentally shot while trying to stop her. The story seemed to work, despite the fact that he was shot twice, and no charges were brought against Juanita Jones as a result of the incident.
Jackie Wilson returned to recording and performing following his recovery, but he did not have another major hit until 1963 when “Baby Workout” reached # 1 on Billboard’s R&B chart and # 5 on the Hot 100. Despite appearing numerous times on ABC-TV’s popular Shindig music show, his record sales further dwindled as a result of the popularity of the Beatles and the other British Invasion artists, along with the incredible success of Motown’s artists during the 1960’s.
He made a comeback in 1966, however, with the help of some of Motown’s Funk Brothers. Because of his declining record sales, Nat Tarnopal had Wilson record with producer Carl Davis in Chicago rather than in New York where he had recorded for the past ten years. Several of the Funk Brothers, who were under an exclusive contract to Motown, would often travel to Chicago to play sessions unbeknownst to Berry Gordy.
Wilson had his biggest hit in almost four years with “Whispers (Gettin’ Louder)” which featured not only members of the Funk Brothers but also Motown’s Andantes on backing vocals. Six months later, during the summer of 1967, Jackie Wilson had his final # 1 R&B hit with “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher”. The song, which again featured members of the Funk Brothers and the Andantes, was also Wilson’s last big hit on the Hot 100, peaking at # 5. “Higher and Higher” and “Lonley Teardrops”, both which have Motown connections, are the songs Jackie Wilson is most remembered for.
He had been seeing model Harlean Harris since 1960. He married her in 1967, but unfortunately the marriage and comeback coincided with an increase in his drinking and his use of cocaine and amphetamines. It was the start of a dark period for Wilson, and it took the family tragedy of his sixteen-year-old son’s shooting death to jolt him into successfully completing a drug treatment program.
By 1975, Wilson was still a popular live performer. He was appearing as part of Dick Clark’s Good Ol’ Rock and Roll Revue when he suffered a massive heart attack while on stage in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Strangely enough, he was performing “Lonely Teardrops” at the time, and on the words “my heart is crying” he grabbed his heart and collapsed on stage. Audience members thought it was part of his act and started applauding, but Cornell Gunter of The Coasters was backstage and noticed that Wilson was not breathing. He was able to resuscitate him and Wilson was rushed to a local hospital.
Medical personnel were able to stabilize his vital signs, but lack of oxygen to the brain caused Jackie Wilson to slip into a coma for the next three months. He had also suffered brain damage as the result of his head hitting the stage when he collapsed. Although he partially recovered, his career was over.
Sadly, Jackie could not speak, and his communication for the next eight years, until his death at the age of forty-nine, was limited to the blinking of his eyes. After years of litigation that tied up his assets and negatively affected the care he was given, Jackie Wilson died in one of the nursing homes where he had lived since his heart attack and head injury.
He suffered one last indignity as a result of the battle over his estate when he was buried in an unmarked grave in Detroit. A fund was later developed by music industry friends and Jackie’s fans to purchase a fitting marker for him at the West Lawn Cemetery in Detroit. He is buried next to his mother, Eliza Mae Wilson who died in 1975 after she had traveled from Detroit to New Jersey to visit him in the hospital.
Jackie Wilson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and awarded the Rhythm and Blues Foundation’s Legacy Tribute Award in 2003. In addition, his recordings of “Lonely Teardrops” and “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher” have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
